In general, a traction machine is usually directed to physical therapy treatments for neck, spine or back pain and used to stretch muscle tissues to straighten or reduce the curvature of a patient's back or neck, so as to relieve the pain or achieve the treatment and recovery effects. With reference to FIG. 1 for a conventional traction machine for physical therapy treatment for a neck pain, the traction machine comprises a traction base 91, a neck base 92 and a headrest portion 93 disposed at an end of the traction base 91, a pushing portion 94 disposed at another end of the traction base 91 and linked with the neck base 92 and the headrest portion 93, and a pneumatic cylinder 95 installed at the bottom of the traction base 91 and abutted and coupled to the pushing portion 94. In addition, a mat portion 96 is disposed on an outer side of the neck base 92. While using the equipment, a patient lies on the mat portion 96 and positions the neck on the neck base 92 and the head on the headrest portion 93. Now, the patient may operate a pusher (not shown in the figure), and the pusher links and controls the operation of the pneumatic cylinder 95 by an air pipe 951, and the pneumatic cylinder 95 is operated to push the pushing portion 94 and drive the neck base 92 and headrest portion 93 to move in order to achieve the neck traction effect. Related prior arts have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,690, PRC Pat. No. 1943527, etc.
Although the aforementioned conventional traction machine can achieve the traction effect, it still has the following drawbacks: The patients operates a pusher to control the operation of the pneumatic cylinder 95, wherein the pusher is similar to a pump, and the patient has to push the pusher reciprocally to pump air, and thus the traction operation is very inconvenient. In addition, it is difficult to control the applied force and load. An end of the pusher generally has a force indicator (or force indicating meter) for indicating a traction force or load (in pounds), so that the patient can know about the traction force or load (in pounds) through the force indicator during the traction operation. The patient can view the force indicator after operating the pusher reciprocally for a while, but cannot perform an appropriate traction operation while viewing the force indicator, or cannot view a change of the force indicator while performing the traction operation and use the force applied for the traction operation as a reference. Obviously, the conventional traction machine requires further improvements. Therefore, it is an important subject for related manufacturers to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional traction machine.
In view of the drawbacks of the conventional traction machine, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed a traction device for neck physical therapy with a convenient operation, a high controllability on applying force, and a function of simultaneously viewing and operating the traction machine in accordance with the present invention.